Meta executives pushed forward with plans to encrypt Facebook and Instagram messaging services, despite internal warnings that it would compromise efforts to detect child exploitation cases. Monika Bickert, Meta's head of content policy, described the plan as "so irresponsible" in a March 2019 internal chat, shortly before CEO Mark Zuckerberg's public announcement.
These revelations come from documents filed in a New Mexico state court case. The lawsuit, brought by Attorney General Raul Torrez, alleges Meta enabled predators to access underage users, leading to abuse and human trafficking. A jury trial is currently underway.
Meta faces global scrutiny over user welfare, particularly concerning young users. Beyond the New Mexico lawsuit, a coalition of attorneys general is pursuing claims of harm to youth mental health, and school districts are also filing suits. Zuckerberg recently testified in a separate case involving alleged harm to a teenager.
The New Mexico filing specifically accuses Meta of misrepresenting the safety of its end-to-end encryption plan for Messenger, first announced in 2019 and later extended to Instagram direct messages.
End-to-end encryption, while a standard privacy feature, poses heightened risks on public social networks connecting children to unknown individuals, according to child safety advocates. Senior Meta safety executives shared these concerns internally.
Documents show Bickert stating the company was making "gross misstatements of our ability to conduct safety operations." She noted that with end-to-end encryption, "there is no way to find the terror attack planning or child exploitation" for proactive referral to law enforcement.
A February 2019 internal briefing estimated that Messenger encryption could have reduced Meta's reporting of child nudity and sexual exploitation imagery to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by 65%, from 18.4 million to 6.4 million cases. Later updates indicated the company would have been "unable to provide data proactively to law enforcement in 600 child exploitation cases, 1,454 sextortion cases, 152 terrorist cases [and] 9 threatened school shootings."
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone stated that the concerns raised in 2019 prompted the development of additional safety features before encrypted messaging launched on Facebook and Instagram in 2023. While messages are encrypted, users can still report objectionable content. Stone added, "The concerns raised in 2019 represent the very reason we developed a range of new safety features to help detect and prevent abuse, all designed to work in encrypted chats."
Efforts included creating special accounts for underage users to prevent unsolicited contact from unknown adults. Safety executives highlighted the risk of children being groomed on semi-public platforms and exploited on private messaging services. Antigone Davis, Meta's Global Head of Safety, noted in a 2019 email that "FB [Facebook] allows pedophiles to find each other and kids via social graph with easy transition to Messenger," deeming this scenario "far, far worse" than risks observed on the company's encrypted WhatsApp service.